Will Earlier Waves Still Be Available?

Had a thought about figure availability further down the line. Will characters and playsets become harder to get the further into the waves we get? So for example we are in June 2014 wave 4 is just out, does this mean wave 1 (launch figures) are now no longer in production and become harder to get?

Don't know how skylanders works so do they still make wave 1 characters etc.

Hey Charlee,

For sure the characters become harder to get. The first Skylanders game was a bit of a challenge for Activision as they were not sure how many figures would sell so, by Christmas when everyone wanted the figures, there were none available (certainly in Australia). stock didn't start to come back into stores in significant numbers until February. The waves then started to disappear as new waves were released with some figures being far harder to get than others.
Giants has been a bit easier to get than Spyros Adventure - guess they made more figures based on the success of the first game.
A lesson I learnt though was to get the figures as early as I could... That's what I'll be doing with Infinity.

I think it all depends on manufacturing. In theory they could say "The Lone Ranger play set has sold a bit but not much any more. So lets stop making Lone Ranger play sets" and then the ones left on shelves will sell off and it would get pretty hard to find. Especially since they are allotted only so much shelf space at retailers. When new waves come out they will be competing with themselves for shelf space. Skylanders is similar to that. but where they differed is that they don't have different SKUs for the figures. When a store gets a shipment of figures it is completely random (ask people who hunted for Ninjini.) That is why you can't reserve specific figures for Skylanders. DI was wise enough to not go that route. It will be easier to locate specific figures. Notice I said "easier" not "easy." But as of right now all you can do is pre-order and then wait and see if figures/play sets are easily available.

This is a tricky question, and it all comes down to Disney. In most of the words coming from the Mouse House, they want this to be an ever evolving game. They are calling it their platform in the sense that it will eventually be one game representing the entirety of what Disney publishes in house. I know others have licenses, but they got rid of Junction Point and Lucas Arts to focus on this. (This last statement was an opinion. It is unsubstantiated.)

If this is all the case I can see them continue to make the playsets available for as long as possible. The playsets drive this game. The adventure you are purchasing is all well and good, but you play through the adventure to unlock the stuff that will be in the Toy Box. Again this is an opinion, but I just don't see people buying this for the adventure mode. Therefore, they are going to need the customer to want to open everything so the playset needs to be there for them.

Now, I think the figures are a different story all together. Disney is fond of creating collectibles. The reason? People are nutty about collecting all things Disney. It's okay to say that I am one of them. I think that when the series is done, there is a good shot individual characters may be as well. That is not to say that they will not make another version of the same character, but it is extremely likely that some characters poses may be placed in the "Disney Vault".

^ Ugg I just hope we get no Series 2 characters. That was easily one of the worst thing about Skylanders, and it was a pain considering that some figures got variants AND reposes. There are 7 Eruptors now if you count the Silver/Snow ones and the 5 ingame variants.
I know Disney like making collectables and that's cool, but there's a point where you've gotta draw the line. I'm going to collect these things to no end and I'll complete my collection completely but I don't want to waste money on the same character, and I probably won't want to play through with them again(if I did, I would reset my old figure). That's the kind of thing that encourages me to stop. If they want to make collectables, they should make them the special figures(like the crystal variants), not regular figures which should stay available until it just isn't viable.

But anyway, OP, I think the answer is yes. But it may be best to get figures as soon as you can, lest they become hard to find. Skylanders still make stuff from the first wave but some figures from Giants are very hard to find, like the discontinued Granite Crusher, Series 2 Slam Bam is hard to find as they haven't manufactured him since the first wave, and so on. @CueLanoo posted pretty much the same thing I wanted to. Speculation, I think that Disney are also going to be able to keep more stuff in stock better. Remember, guys- Activision is big, but they're like a kitten compared Disney. If DI does really well like many of us expect it, they can practically burn money on it.

@Agent C, great points. The easier the figure are too get, the more people will buy for unlocks. It does make sense to have variants though for the sake of the rarity and collectors.

@Nibelilt *sniff* That was beautiful!
I am also going to try to get every figure, even the variants.

It also comes down to manufacturing. If the game proves to be insanely popular, and supply chains are stressed, they'll be concentrating on getting new product out rather than manufacturing older figures that have already sold through. Those figures will more than likely be manufactured again, but it could be awhile.

That's the way it was with the first Skylanders game at least. They only had so much manufacturing capacity, so they had to choose between new product or retreads. Obviously, the choice was for new product, which they knew would sell.

I imagine eventually the waves will consist of 2/3 new characters and 1/3 old. I also wouldn't be surprised to see them artificially build up demand by making a character or playset limited in its first run, and then manufacturing them again later on.

The Lone Ranger playset would seem to fit this idea. Due to the movie being a bomb, it probably won't be available past it's initial run. The only thing that may make it less limited is the fact that there are only it and Cars as extra playsets at this point. But, once the Toy Story and Frozen playsets come out, it'll probably be dust.